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The Crawfish Boxes

ST Games No. 10 & 11: Houston Astros split-squad at St. Louis Cardinals/vs. Washington Nationals

Grapefruit League record (though it's essentially meaningless): 3-4

Starters today are: RHP Bud Norris vs. RHP Chris Carpenter and RHP Felipe Paulino vs. RHP Scott Olsen

When I hear about lineups, we'll post them here.

You can listen and watch the Cardinals game here, while listening to the Nationals broadcast on 740 KTRH.

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Comments

Watching on MLB.TV
why is my feed always skippy?
Cardinals announcers criticizing Bourns contact/Matsui's walk rate
Towles HBP

Looked almost Biggio-like… was a slow breaking ball, Towles just turned his back and leaned into it.

Michaels gets on second with an error on Schumaker, dying quail type ball.

Sullivan strikes out

Middle of the first, all nothing.

Paulino rocking a little facial hair

Looks better. Older.

Pujols and Rasmus with singles

Both good, well-located fastballs, though. First and second with two outs.

Flyout to Bourn

Inning over, Paulino out of trouble.

Johnson singles

Hard hit groundball into the hole.

Chris Shelton two-run homer

Out into center, over 400’

2-0 Astros

Inning over, Ramirez stranded on second. Still 2-0.

In the Nationals game

Bud Norris made it through the first inning stranding two Nationals runners..

Jason Bourgeois tripel to open the Astros half of the inning, scoring on a double (almost an inside the park homer).

Aatros lead 1-0 after one

So far so good, then!

Geoge H W and Barbara Bush in attendance (free tickets)

and the Mosbachers with them

Second Inning versus the Nationals

Bud Norris pitching
Castro catching
Pence in right, Bourgeois in center, Carlos Lee in left
Keppinger is playing – not sure where (Second maybe)
Ditto Blum (First?)

Nationals shortstop doubled and was stranded at second.

Feliz playing third. Quintero must be the DH.

Astros half of the second

Feliz singled to start the inning.
Castro called out on strikes.
H. Quintero pop out
Maysonet playing second (Keppinger must be the shortstop)
Maysonet flies tro right,

Wind is a factor today.

Feliz stranded at second.

Astros lead 1-0 after two

Paulino looking good against Cardinals

No runs so far, middle of the second, 2-0 Astros. Had a brief period of control issues at the beginning of the second, but righted the ship after one walk.

Cardinals announcers are being more fair to Felipe than our own radio guys—they said he had a good ratio of strikeouts/walks but allowed a lot of hits.

Michaels doubles on a hard hit groundball into the gap. Don’t see that too often.

Now they’re bitching about Carpenter or Wainwright not winning the CY over Lincecum. “Mind-boggling”, they say. Silly.

Inning over, two men stranded, 2-0 ’stros.

Lincecum and Javy Vasquez had to be the top two easily. I’m not sure what they’re complaining about, really.

They were all deserving .

You could say Wainwright and Carpenter split votes. My memory is faint, but I think I would have voted Lincecum.

They all had great years, no doubt, but the Cardinals announcers were acting like it was ludicrous that Wainwright or Carpenter didn’t win it, citing ERA, W/L. Looking at xFIP, K/BB, etc, Lincecum and Vasquez were the hands down best.

UH Cougars going to Big Dance

They beat UTEP today to win the conference tournament

Wesley Wright in to pitch in the Cards game

Catches a LD comebacker to retire Schumaker(?)

Pujols doubles, Wright strikes out next better, gets out of the inning. Still 2-0.

Bud Norris makes bad pitch on 0-2 count

Ryan Zimmerman’s homerun ties up the game.

Norris walked the next batter.

Listening on the radio, I guess? Wonder whether it was actually a bad pitch or whether the radio announcers just assume it was because it was a HR.

Norris missing target

Control lost. Q asking for outside pitches and Norris pitches going inside.

After Norris going 2-0 on Willingham, Willingham doubles home Zimmerman.

Nationals up 2-1.

P.S. – Nationals are 0-8 in Spring Training.

Pitching coach to the mound.

Didn't Norris comment on having a lot more movement on his FB this year?

I could have sworn I saw or read an interview where Norris said he has much more movement on his 2 seam this year for some reason. Maybe Arnie has something to do with that.

Anyway, I think Norris is glad about the movement but is having trouble controlling it.

Cardinals game: Manzella doubles into center

Over Colby Rasmus’ head.

Keep in mind the wind is blowing out hard, however.

Hard Wind in Kissimmee too

Fly balls are an adventure

Don't know why...

But angels in the outfield comes to mind

Lugo makes a spectacular play to snatch a liner over short and rob Manzella of a single and an RBI.

Erm, Matsui that is.

Not Manzella (who was on third).

Hunter Pence doubled

As Drayton and Milo chat.
Lee flies to left to strand Pence

Wright allows a soler homer to Ryan Ludwick to lead off the 4th

Decent pitch, down and away fastball, Ludwick just went down and got it.

Now fly ball doubles by Yady Molina and Lugo. Wind seems to be really helping out the hitters today. 2-2, nobody out.

Error on Johnson, runners at the corners.

Now wright in big trouble… walks the bases loaded, still nobody out.

Arnsberg out to chat.

Oh, not Arnsberg, my mistake, he’s at the other game.

I wondered how he could be two places at the same time

It was Hooten

Wright seems to be having some control problems.

Manzella makes a spectacular play to save two runs, jumps and stabs line drive

so manzella and sutil have impressed on defense so far?

i like, i like.

so far this spring so far

not in this game. just wanted to clarify

disregard my use of "so far" twice

today is not my day

Lindstrom pitching in the fourth

Maysonet makes nice play to end the inning. No score for Nationals.

 Drayton talking about Billy Wagner (interesting )

Drayton says we're almost a year and a half into the recession

Someone tell Drayton it’s almost three years in now

Chia-Jen Lo coming into the Cards game

One out, bases loaded, score 2-2.

What a spot to enter!

Let’s hope he’s not facing Pujols.

He will if he doesn’t get a double play ball. Felipe Lopez then Pujols, I think.

Lopez flies out, one run home, 3-2 Cardinals.

Don’t know what breaking pitch that was, but it was IMPRESSIVE. Any other batter would have swung, probably—hard and dove into the dirt at the last second. Walks Pujols, though, to load them up again.

Lo barely misses on a 3-2 fastball to walk in a run.

Lo finally gets out of it with a flyout on Ludwick. Doesn’t allow any runs of his own, but allows two more charged to Wright for a 4-run frame.

Cardinals announcers must not have the book on Lo, calling him a “control pitcher”. Um, no, he’s a power pitcher, guys.

Drayton has something against Stanford

not sure what

one of his radio guys is from Stanford.

Ryan Zimmerman stole second

Went to third on wild pitch
Tommy Castro almost threw him out at both bases.

Zimmerman Scored on grounder to second

3-1 Nationals .
Nats still batting

4-2 Cardinals, heading into the fifth
Nats score again

4-1

Sporting News Evaluates the Astros

Offense: D.

Pitching: D. .

Bench: C.

Manager: C. An incomplete might be more accurate,

Sporting News prediction: With lingering questions about both the offense and the pitching staff, Houston is unlikely to improve upon its fifth-place finish from last season.

Complete article: http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/article/2010-03-12/houston-astros-2010-preview

Accurate on the offense, probably, but I think the pitching is at least a C, maybe better, and I guess they’re not factoring in defense?

Towles on third

With either a double and an error or a triple. Well-struck ball very deep to center, almost a HR.

Sullivan hits a dying quail single, maybe an error. Towles home. 3-4 Cardinals.

Sullivan saved from a caught stealing by a balk on Cardinals pitcher. Man on second, 1 out.

Johnson strikes out, Shelton pops out, inning over still 3-4 Cards.

I’m having difficulty getting mlb radio audio. I get a continual message of “connecting”

Start the process over.

I’m getting the Nationals game clearly

I tried that on Cardinals-Astros’ game to no use. I changed the audio to Nats’ game, and it came in.

Wind benefits Astros against Nationals (but Astros don't take advantage)

Keppinger doubled.

Duncan at first misjudged a foul Pop to let Pence continue an at-bat, where he walked.

Carlos Lee flied to center, but center fielder dropped the ball to load the bases.

The Nationals get the next two batters to end the inning without Astros scoring

Nats had some kind of horrific ERA going into today’s game (something like 27.0 ERA).

Lo back in to pitch another frame in Cardinals game

Another dying quail ball results in a single… wind and sun are messing the fielders up badly today.

Lugo with a two-run homer, now 6-3 Cardinals.

Another double, one out and a man on second. Lo displaying very little ability to locate his fastball. The breaking ball was better than I expected, but he didn’t use it much, and I’m not sure he can throw it for strikes.

Lo is being pulled now.

Majewski in to pitch, and now another double. 7-3 Cards.

Manzella charges a slow groundball and makes a nice play to get the out at first. Two away.

Majewski gets us out of the frame quickly with a couple groundball outs, but allows a double and another run charged to Lo.

Chris Sampson pitching in the Nationals game

3 straight hits (quips Milo “He shouldn’t have gotten that haircut”)

Bourgeois makes tumbling catch in center

Nationals score – 5-1

Castro nails runner at second.

Sampson gets strikeout to end the inning

Milo: “Maysonet with BIG TIME HIT.”

Maysonet doubled home two runs.

Castro walked, Q singled, Maysonet doubled

Castro and Qunitero scored

5-3
no outs

Maysonet with bad base running….easily thrown out at 3d base, making the dreaded first out.

Manzella with another double

Into the gap, that would be a double in any park. Well hit ball.

Ramirez walks, two on and nobody out.

Tommy, keep it up and prove me wrong.

Bourn continues his slow Spring, striking out for the second time today. 0-3

is there a point at which we should become nervous about Bourn? I don’t think we’re there yet, but I really would like to see him get off the snide.

He looks a little lost out there so far. Lots of time to fix things, but he looks passive at the plate, not making a lot of contact, frustrated when he swings and misses.

As I recall...

Jeff Bagwell had a couple really slow springs. Of course, he was also a notorious slow starter in April anyways. However, I think there were a couple of times when he hit like .158 in spring and had a big start to the season. I guess I’m saying I’m not worried yet. After all, this isn’t because teams have started pitching him differently. At least, not yet.

Esposito comes in to bat, strikes out. Looks indecisive at the plate, getting called on two swinging strikes while trying to check. Top of the inning over, no runs come in off the Manzella double/Ramirez walk.

Jason Bourgeois

has been impressive today.

I don’t much about him, but he might be a good addition .

Brewers’ fans really liked him when he was called last year. Ol’ Pete mentions him on occasion..as due the BrewCrew commenters.

Ryan Zimmerman doubled

He’s a one-man show

Nationals have runners on the corners; One out

Shuck playing center for the Astros; Cash catching Loux pitching

DOUBLE PLAY (6-4-3)

Majewski strands a runner on third

Off a groundball double. Three groundball outs. Still 7-3 Cards.

Majewski looks pretty good. Lots of movement on everything he throws, but he does seem to have a little trouble repeating his mechanics, as he threw at least one pitch well outside the zone on every batter.

Blum ties the game up against the Nats. I was listening closely, but I heard that T.J. Steele has also scored in this inning.

Romero in to bat

Singles after a good at bat, lots of contact on pitches inside the zone and finally drops a 2-2 pitch into right field.

Drew Locke comes in and immediately crushes the first pitch for a two-run homer. 7-5 Cardinals.

This was off Ryan Franklin, by the way.

he may well be the best candidate for the 5th outfielder position. he is a switch hitter and can hit lefthanded. he has a pretty good minor league record, and has a little ML experience and is only 25 years old.

i couldn't agree more

i’ve thought that since chone came out with their projections…he’s everything you say he is and offers some degree of upside.

At the same time, he doesn’t have as much defensive versatility as you’d like in a fifth outfielder.

With Michaels also limited in his outfield positioning, it’d leave the Astros weak if Bourn has to come out of the game.

In AAA, he played more games in CF than any other position. In every D-Backs AAA season, he played all three outfield positions. He isn’t Michael Bourn on defense, but other than Y. Ramirez, who do the Astros have who approaches Bourn’s defensive skill?. I haven’t seen Romero play, but my hunch is that he as good an outfielder defensively as Cory Sullivan.

correction: make that “chances” in CF, rather than “games.” MinorLeagueBaseballSplits shows only chances and outs by position.

That explains it

We were talking about different guys. I thought your comment referred to locke not romero. My bad

an additional clarification, Sullivan is well below average as a CFer, according to UZR, and Romero is also below average in CF, according to Total Zone.

Jason Bourgeois

I know very little about Jason Bourgeois; but he had a good game today in Centerfield against the Nationals. The radio guys at one point when Bourgeois made a run and tumble catch that he looked just like Micahel Bourn. (plus he a had a triple that should have been a inside the park homerun).

Yeah, he has to be up there. Sutil came in and grounded out. Middle of the 7th, Cardinals coming up to bat.

Astros Seventh

Hunter Pence infield single
CJ Steele running for Hunter

Barnes (Who?) (Leftfield) doubled
Steele Scored

Blum singled.
Barnes scored to tie the game.

5-5

Koby Clemens pinch runs for Blum.

Pedro Feliz on 3-2 pitch singled (or an error on short?)- called an error – Clemens to third.

Still no outs.
 Navarro pinch running for Feliz

Kevin Cash (Catcher)

Weird play – Koby goes home on suicide bunt – only Cash missed the sign and swung for the fences – in fact the ball hits the fence. Clemens scored.

Pitching change – No Outs

Astros lead 6-5

Barnes???

Wow. Can someone educate me on who this Navarro guy is?

I don’t know about Barnes. Navarro is a shortstop of the AAAA variety out of the Mariners’ system. He isn’t that old (26, if I recall) and reportedly is a decent defensive player. Not so good a reputation as a hitter. I am guessing he plays 2d base for RR this year.

so, essentially

Jose Vallejo, 2.0? As far as being a AAAA type?

maybe. I am assuming Sutil plays shortstop at RR, and that would mean Navarro would take Vallejo’s place (since he was likely to be the AAA second baseman). Navarro’s future (if he has one) is probably a utility infielder.

Brandon Barnes

An ex-football player, he spent two seasons in Lexington before finally moving up to High A last season. He actually hit really well in limited playing time (291 PA) before moving up for a cup of coffee in Double-A. I was really down on him two years ago, but he made some solid steps in 2009. If he can hit in Corpus this season, he’s got some upside, I think.

Astros have taken lead…Koby Clemens scored. Feliz had a big hit off the shortstop’s glove which was reversed to an error call—-with Milo and radio guy calling it a grave injustice.

Trinidad Polin in to pitch in the Cardinals game
*Polin Trinidad

Shouldn’t just listen to the Cardinals announcers and type without thinking. :)

Strikes out the first batter, Cards announcers praising his “live arm”. Heh. So Lo is a control pitcher and Trinidad has a live arm.

that’s funny.

1-2-3 inning for Trinidad. Looked pretty good, good location and movement. Strikeout, groundout, flyout to center.

7-5 Astros as another Astro gets a hit

out one

I’m losing track of the action
Kata batting

The Astros still have Kata?

26000 fans for a spring training game

The place to be

This Cardinals stadium is sold out too, apparently went deep into standing room, but not with nearly that capacity. Only 7,000+ fans.

Astros seventh ends

7-5

Scorer reverses call and gives Feliz a hit.

injustice corrected, I guess.

Astros minor leaguers take the field

All those pinch runners stay in the game.

Bazardo pitching
First batter singled

Trainer, manager and pitching coach to visit Bazardo

Bazardo leaves the game – unknown injury

Gervacio new pitcher

I haven’t been following the action that closely because I’ve been reading Joe Posnanski’s essay on Pedro Feliz. It’s rather long because it’s a take off from Bill James’ recent essay on RBI hitters (which has drawn a lot of discussion at the Book blog). Part of this is painful, because Joe is pointing out legitimate criticisms about Feliz, which I know are true. And I think he is pointing to a weakness of the Astros’ front office’s decision criteria with respect to RBIs and clutch hitting—-something I mentioned in a comment here a few weeks ago. Basically, James said that adding a big RBI hitter to bad team will make the bad team worse. I think the gist is that bad teams need players with good OBP a lot more than they need a low-batting average player who can drive in runs.

I guess we better hope Matsui, Towles/Castro, and Manzella wind up having high-OBP years.

Error stolen base Wild pitch dropped ball

Nats score

Cardinals announcers mixed up

They’re saying Paulino is the new pitcher, which of course he’s not since he’s already done for the day.

It’s actually Villar. He allows a double and hits the next batter with a pitch.

Villar is very, very tall.

Arnsberg must really like Villar and Abad, since Wade said he would have to wrestle the two pitchers away from Arnsberg in order to get them assigned to the minor league camp.

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too.

Maybe they’ll come up later in the year.

Wild pitch, another run scores. 8-5 Cardinals, one out.

Villar recovers with a popout and a strikeout to end the inning.

Since you're watching the Cardinals game...

Milo reported something curious about the Cardinals’ game…they said Paulino pitched two innings, left the game, and then worked in the bullpen because he hadn’t thrown enough pitches. That seems odd. Any thoughts?

He looked good except for a short stretch where he got a little wild. No strikeouts, if I remember right, but only one walk and no runs allowed. I was puzzled that they didn’t let him pitch a third inning.

Astros 8th in Nationals Game

Steele out
Barnes singled
Clemens struck out
Navarro flied out

Inning over – no score

Romero grounds out

Drew Locke (I think) back in to bat.

Strikes out looking on a 3-2 pitch… looked like a ball, I don’t blame him.

Chris Johnson flies out deep to center. Game over. Astros 5, Cardinals 8.

Gervacio back out for the ninth

Somebody from the minor league camp was hustled into the bullpen just in case

First batter walked on four pitches
Eric Bruntlett doubled

Runners on second and Third . No outs

Bruntlett coming back to haunt Astros…doubles and runners end up 2d and 3d no outs. Gervacio not doing so good now.

Nationals tie the game on a grounder to second
7-7 in the middle of the ninth

Let’s go Astros

Kevin Cash

on a 3-2 count

(injury report on Bazardo – shoulder tightness)

Cash out someway

Humberto Quintero

on 3-2 count

walked

can we get a pinch run for Quintero? As I say that, they answer on the radio: no players available, even from the minor league camp.

Kata with a hit.
Quintero scored from first on a double earlier in the game

(and just scored on a looping single to win the game )

He lost weight over the winter – must have made him faster – or gave him endurance

and Quintero is NOT even the player of the Game

Radio guys interview Bud Norris.

Matt Kata

singled to left center field.
Q to second

Jack Shuck

Looping liner
Q Scored from second to WIN the game

Shuck drives in the run!! They youngster will get some attention for that. There was a play at the plate, but Q somehow made it there.

Astros win.

ASTROS win one, lose one

Beat Nationals
Lost to Cardinals

KTRH web site

By the way, the article links to the KTRH web site for live streaming audio. However, KTRH and KBME have been blocking the MLB games on their live streaming audio.

IIINNNNteresting…I’ve just been listening on Gameday Audio; and linking to the local stations b/c I assumed they’d stream the games too. Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll just mention the local station carrying the game in Houston from now on.

And...Nats stay winless in the spring.
Thank goodness for that

That’s 2 of the Astros five wins

Yikes. Um, Bud?

If you’re not having any physical problems… why are you making such a big deal about being healthy?

“I felt good,” Norris said. “That was the big part was staying healthy. It felt good to extend myself a little bit more, but the No. 1 priority was to go out there and be healthy and throw strikes, which I did. The conditions were a little tough, obviously, but being healthy was the key.”

Somebody tell me I’m reading too much into this?

http://brianmctaggart.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/03/day-21-recap-astros-split-a-pair-of-games.html

Yes, it’s a bit odd, but I going to go with “reading too much into it.” Norris did end up last season with a sore arm, so it’s natural that he would be focused on staying healthy this spring.

maybe a premature assessment

but it looks like the Astros will have players at Round Rock ready and able to contribute when needed at the MLB level during the season.

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